The Ornamental white marble use and reuse at the Ottoman palaces of Algiers’ Regency: New knowledge to a provenance study

This multi-disciplinary study examines the historical and technical aspect of the supply of ornamental white marble in Ottoman Algiers between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Our systematic analysis of Ottoman Regency administration archives, specifically the correspondence between provincial chiefs of Algiers and Cherchell dating from 1824 to 1825^AD, reveals two distinct supply routes for white ornamental marble to Algiers' building sites. The first identifies Genoa as the sole source of imports, while the second confirms the reuse of remains from the ancient Roman city of Caesarea/Cherchell. To verify these provenances of ornamental white marble, petrographic and geochemical analyses were conducted on fifteen (15) white marble samples collected from the architectural elements of the Ottoman Algiers Citadel. This palatial complex's construction and subsequent completion coincide with the period of the archival data. Experimental results confirm the Italian origin of the majority of samples, primarily from Carrara.